Remaints of a flame
by Shirouyami
Summary: When a soul is broken and a life is destroyed, living on is the only option that is left, yet the scars don't fade, nor do the memories. When a meddler named Kairi sticks her nose in Axel's business, things change for an unkown twist in fate. AU Akuroku.
1. prologue: Old Moon

Yami: My computer was confiscated, but now I could use my dad's and finally post this!

* * *

Even in his sleep, Axel was never left alone. The gohsts of a past that his soul wanted to forget as much as his heart did, came and penetrated his mind in the form of dreams, nightmares that made sure there was not a single morning he looked in the mirror to see anyting more then a broken redhead with puffy bags underneath his one strartling green eyes that now had a thin layer of dead over them. It was far to much for him to handle, like an invisible hand that slowly built up pressure on his neck, choking him and draining away the little life that still showed in the emerald windows of the soul.

Even more unnerving were the hands of faceless and nameless human beingst, that belonged to the gohsts that haunted him, tracing every part of his body, ignoring the texture of his clothing to torture him in the dreams that followed him every night, as if he'd felt them just yesterday. Yet even yesterday, it had been nothing more then a dream, a memory of a faraway past.

As the green pools, covered by a layer of ice to protect the slumbering remaints of his soul from the cold and cruel world shot open, the boy found himself alone on his couch, in his small apartment while cold sweat and warm, salty tears covered his body.

The room was cold, freezing almost, making Axel reach the conclusion that his old heater had broken down yet again. Just to check, he lazily lifted his hand to flick on the light, a colouful ocean of swearwords slipping past his lips as nothing happened.

He didn't even take the efford to close his eyes and think, to know that his deadline for paying the electricity bill had passed a long time ago. He groaned and looked at the only light that was in the room, the flashing blood-red symbols on his alarm-clock that workerd on batteries thus escaped the cruelty of the electricity company. 04:52.

That meant he had only eight minutes to sleep on. Feeling little for that, he got out of his bed, shuddering lighlty as the chilly air in the room got in contact whith his pale skin. His eyes scanned the pile of garbage in front of him before he fished a remotely clean black shirt, a black sweater that needed washing soon and black, baggy pants that were clean, only because he hadn't wore it since he had washed it, and picked them up.

His room held a fridge, a couch, a table and an enormous amount of piles in which most things should have been thrown away a long time ago, the smell attending Axel to the fact that he should clean up soon. He made his way towards the fridge, opening it to get out some cheese and a bottle of water, the only things that were still in it. He closed the dor before the cold could escape the fridge, since there was no more electricity. He gulped down one fourth of the contents of the bottle and took a bite out of the cheese, not daring to eat more since he would need all the money he had for the electricity. After he placed to cheese and the water back in the fridge, he made his way over to one of the two doors in the room, the other being the exit of the apartment.

As he walked inside the bathroom, which only contained a toilet and a shower, which had a mirror in it. As he put on the hot water, the handle that gave cold water having broken a long time ago, his eyes fell on the mirror that showed him, with a crack running right through the middle of the plate, separating the pale green eyes that glared back at him resentfully. Even though he turned away, after his one-minute shower –to save on the water-bills- he had to face himself yet again, his eyes gohsting across the reflection of the white lines that are carved into the flesh of his right hand. He knew the characters that the ugly scars formed. "P O X", proprety of Xemnas. The symbols were nothing but the abbreviations of the words, mercilesly cut into his back, yet he felt almost relieved as he slid the fingerless gloves over them after he had dressed the rest of his body.

To hide the two small, diamont shaped tatoos right underneath his eyes as well as the bags, he used make-up. When he was ready, he got out of his two-room apartment to get the morning papers he spread through his neighbourhood every morning before going to school, while noting to himself that he had to find yet another job to pay the hire for the appartment, electricity and water, just to keep himself alive just a little longer.

He never heard his alarm clock go off as the red symbols hit 05:00.

_And the dogs were barking at the new moon,_

_Whisteling a new tune,_

_Hoping it would come soon_

_So that they could die…_

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_Yami: R&R please! Should I continue?_


	2. Chapter 1: Hypocrite

Yami: I think I said it before, I'm not English so my story has a lot of grammar flaws. Also, sadly I do not own kingdom hearts, although I am in posession of a copy of both of the playsation games.

It took a while to come up with an idea for this, time that should actually be spend on working on WOAS (sorry -). Also note that I am not emo! I'm just dperessed, there is a difference. I actually got a mail asking if I was emo! I am insulted, although emo music is good -.

* * *

Names are a very important part of life. Nameless things are forgotten because they drift to the back of the head. A nameless person, a nobody. A nameless thing, nothing...

This is why lots of things are given a name, even though you'd rather forget about them. Like the flu for instance, or your most hated person. Time is one of those words too, as is past. Humans create these terms so that they know what the other is talking about and to learn from what they in reality want to forget. They call that hypocrisy, yet another of those words that people rather forget.

When a kid is given a name at it's birth, that marks the person. It makes him or her a one of a kind that is to be remembered. Like this, groceries too are remembered by names.

This is the reason they name schools, so that the students wont forget, although they rather _would _forget.

Radient Garden high is yet one more of those places where teenagers from twelve to eighteen are forced to go in order to sit into a classroom that is filled to it's roof, to listen to a teacher that desperately tries the hormonal bunch to listen to the monotonous explanations. Instead, missed sleep and spit-balls in the hair are obtained when in the classroom.

Lunch-period is one of the words that are appreciated, and in the entire collection of sixteen-thousand and twenty-four students that attended RG there is not a single one who would forget about it.

Of course food is the reason lunch-period exists in the first place but food too is just a word for something that is needed for the body. The time given to replenish their energy stock is mainly used for socializing with friends who have to waste their time in different classrooms. Socializing too is just a word that is used to describe something that is needed, although this time it is for the mind.

Teenagers that are crammed in high-school are in an awkward period of their life. They have passed the time of being a primary school student in which they are allowed to play and be oblivious to the rest of the world but they are too young to be allowed into the adult society. So they create their own.

Within the walls of RG high you find a miniature copy of the outside world with it's own celebrities and important faces. They have faces that everyone knows, scandals that burn through school in a matter of one lunch-period, genii, artists and outsiders, all meaningless words that will vanish in naught as soon as graduation rolls over.

Of course there is one name that every one knows, that makes High-school society go on and on and is known as respected by everyone; The gossip queen.

In Radient Garden high, this position is in the hands of a small, red-headed minx with a sly tongue who has a talent for talking and had the most persuading posse one can imagine. Kairi Idatsu knows her way with words and instead of sucking up to everyone she had managed to worm herself into a position in which everyone tried to suck up to her instead. Kairi's knowledge about what was going in school is somewhat scary for the ones that don't know her. With the help of her six closest friends there is no one that could keep a secret from her.

Whenever her pointy tongue could not pry into ones business it was either Sora's cheerful demeanour, Sora's pout, Riku's beauty, an angry Riku, Selphie's nagging, Yuffie's ninja antics, Tidus's cute looks combined with his ego or Wakka's big figure that leaned against the wall while his knuckles made that gruesome knacking sound that made he hairs in your neck prickle and stand up that did the trick and made he owner of the secret spill the beans in the face of the mightiest woman of RG high.

Even if she knew everything in school, having connections was a usefull thing too. Connections, yet another of these words that mean nothing yet is imortant to the human heart, as egocentric as can be. Care is the illusion that the outside world is shown by the connecting bonds, yet care is not often what is felt or one another when a connection is established. The only true reason for care is the fruits that bloom from the bond and are to be picked form either side no mater if that fruit contains a loving feeling or an ice cold relation of convenience.

Convenience was the reason for most of the relations to the people whom were allowed to take a place on her own lunch table which was placed in the middle of the cafeteria. Zexion for instance was a very good ally to have and making him to an enemy would make a big problem of the smart yet stoic boy. As an ally, he was most useful when one wanted to take revenge on someone for the shy emo-dressing boy was one sly schemer whose plans where hardly ever uncovered.

Marluxia too, was a connection for convenience for the beautiful boy was the one in school that people went to hen advice was needed. This was how Marluxia usually knew who was having what kind of troubles, something everyone's beloved lady gossip was very interested in.

Demyx was a rather obvious choice of company for the young boy with the miniature mohawk was a nice and happy boy, somewhat of a reminder of Sora, and he was one f the few people who could talk to Cloud, Sephiroth and Leon who where all rather unapproachable.

The only two members of the table whom she didn't really feel fond of were Roxas whom they inherited because he was Sora's brother and Hayner, the school's number one bad boy.

Yet having those two around was pretty usefull when it came to today's purpose; learning about the enigmatic outcast that was named Axel.

All she knew of Axel was that he didn't want to talk to people and that he had never had a friend that was on this school.

"All right guys, Shall we start on today's conversation?" Kairi couldn't help but love the way all attention turned to her when she spoke, even if that was arrogant. No one but she was to know she was egocentric.

She looked around and scanned their faces before blinking innocently with her blue-green eyes, the windows of the soul that were protected form the outside world by a curtain of pretence fitting a Queen of Gossip. "I wanted to ask about your knowledge about Axel."

The silence that her sentence triggered lasted for aboout half a minute before Maruxia spoke up. "He seems a pretty troubled person although I never talked about that kind of things with him. I was paired up with him fro biology once and it was quite hard to do that project because he didn't want me to come over and he didn't give me his telephone-number either. . He IS smart though."

Zexion was the next to talk. "He works in the same garage as I do and he is very good at his work. The only negative thing about him on work is that he doesn't say a word more then neccesary" the others gave each other knowing glances when Zexion said this "and he never works a minute more or less then he is supposed to. I don't even think the boss has his phone-number because he never calls Axel to help when we have trouble."

Demyx twisted nervously in his chair before continuing the small list. "Well, Axel's in my class. He sometimes makes faces at tachers, he's impolite and teachers have no way of contacting his parents or caretakers."

The last one to say anything was surprisingly Hayner. "He lives in a red-light district." His comment was short and blunt, but it told something new about the way of life, something that intruiged Kairi to no end.

The one thing the noticed that was still missing was a phone number and she hungered to know why. Even if she wasn't Zexion the schemer, in her head too, schemes began to unfold. "One of you, minus Zexion because I need him for his specialty, scheming, is going to befriend Axel, and we are going to determine who with this bottle."

She held the object she was refferring to above her head and then placed the green and round bottle with the strawberry juice sticker pasted on it on the table and waited intil everyone agreed. After the last nod, she spun the bottle around, looking at it intently until it stopped spinning to point at one of the blondes sitting at the table. The victim was Roxas, who let out a soft groan.

After Demyx volunteered to help Roxas the bell rung, voicing over their conversation.

Elsewhere, just outside the doors of school, a red-haired boy threw the remaints of his cigatette on the ground and stepped on it while the music that blared in his ears contiued as if the bell hadn't rung and his legs started to walk him off to his next hour of torture in a class with people who hated him, all the distance solely focusing on the music that only he could hear emitting from the miniature speakers that were plugged into his ears.

_Well, she loves you, and she says that she loves you  
You're faithful, she says 'Yeah, I'm faithful too'  
And well she loves you the way she says that she loves you  
While she's fucking behind your back! _

Hypocrite 


End file.
